Throughout their generations, God remained faithful—while Abraham’s offspring, God’s people, remained unfaithful. Far from blameless, they kept breaking the covenant instead of keeping it. And how does God respond? By being faithful.
Tremble at God’s awesomeness and power, what He is capable of, and what He has done. And you will find that the more you fear God, the less fear you will have left over for people’s thoughts or opinions of you.
What if you had a patch of ground and a bunch of plants which, no matter what you did, refused to produce a good crop? How much work would you keep putting into it? At what point would you say, “I’ve done enough, and I need to walk away now?”
Not everyone was going to respond well to Timothy's ministry. In fact, things were going to get worse. How was Timothy—and how are we—supposed to press on when we know it won't get any easier?